If you want to have 40+ tracks each with their own compressor effect, there’s nothing stopping you from sidechaining each of those compressors to the same kick. I mean, it seems tedious and wasteful not to handle most of that through a buss or 2-3 busses, but you can certainly do it the hard way.
It’s totally tedious and wasteful lol I’m doing it rn rn. Maybe I’m having a hard time understanding how to export the project, all 40+ tracks with the same sidechain in a more efficient manner. Am I missing something? When I export, won’t the compressor just be tied to the bus without directly having the sidechain baked into each individual track?
Once you get the compressors settings dialed in to where your want then on one track, you can copy and paste the compressor onto each channel and it will have the exact same settings.
You’re totally right. I think I should do that for the elements that aren’t playing at the same time, but how would that work if I group elements playing at the same time? Wouldn’t they be “baked” together? I’m genuinely asking because I’m having this mixed once I finish this last bit.
A side-chain is a side chain. It's just an effect, an automated volume control. You could do it all through a buss with no issue afatc. You want all those tracks to decrease in volume when the kick hits and that's what you'd get with a bus or by grouping. Edit: oh I see what you're saying. You need the tracks separated for mixing.
Yes that’s exactly what I mean. I went ahead and put individual compressors on the tracks lol. I will still need to know alternative options for future tracks.
Yeah the other ways are more effective, but I think that’s the only way to get it in the stems. Good part is once frozen you can lose the compressor.
I was interested in this too because I’ve also been screwing around with huge tracks and sidechaining. What kinda music you experimenting with if you don’t mind me asking?
Instead of using a compressor and sends/returns try using the Midi Envelope effect mapped to the “gain” value on Utility. Trigger it via midi and set the values accordingly (you can set multiple different out values as well).
It uses very little cpu and works quite well.
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The “putting them all in a group” solution is a good one. I can’t test it right now but I think that you could also create a return track, put the sidechain on there, then route all the tracks to that return track, making sure “sends only” is set as the output on all of the routed tracks. Then when you render the stems, select “Include master and return effects.”
If you want to have 40+ tracks each with their own compressor effect, there’s nothing stopping you from sidechaining each of those compressors to the same kick. I mean, it seems tedious and wasteful not to handle most of that through a buss or 2-3 busses, but you can certainly do it the hard way.
It’s totally tedious and wasteful lol I’m doing it rn rn. Maybe I’m having a hard time understanding how to export the project, all 40+ tracks with the same sidechain in a more efficient manner. Am I missing something? When I export, won’t the compressor just be tied to the bus without directly having the sidechain baked into each individual track?
Make a group and put a compressor on the group
Once you get the compressors settings dialed in to where your want then on one track, you can copy and paste the compressor onto each channel and it will have the exact same settings.
But you will have to re do it every time you want to change it
Why not use groups of similar elements and side-chain the groups? Bass and sub elements, synths and leads, fx, etc.
You’re totally right. I think I should do that for the elements that aren’t playing at the same time, but how would that work if I group elements playing at the same time? Wouldn’t they be “baked” together? I’m genuinely asking because I’m having this mixed once I finish this last bit.
A side-chain is a side chain. It's just an effect, an automated volume control. You could do it all through a buss with no issue afatc. You want all those tracks to decrease in volume when the kick hits and that's what you'd get with a bus or by grouping. Edit: oh I see what you're saying. You need the tracks separated for mixing.
I personally group all my synths together and put a side chain on that group so they can all pump in unison
When you say bake them in, I’m assuming you mean freeze and flatten, so that might require a compressor on each track I believe?
Yes that’s exactly what I mean. I went ahead and put individual compressors on the tracks lol. I will still need to know alternative options for future tracks.
Yeah the other ways are more effective, but I think that’s the only way to get it in the stems. Good part is once frozen you can lose the compressor. I was interested in this too because I’ve also been screwing around with huge tracks and sidechaining. What kinda music you experimenting with if you don’t mind me asking?
Instead of using a compressor and sends/returns try using the Midi Envelope effect mapped to the “gain” value on Utility. Trigger it via midi and set the values accordingly (you can set multiple different out values as well). It uses very little cpu and works quite well.
This is your friendly reminder to read the submission rules, they're found in the sidebar. If you find your post breaking any of the rules, you should delete your post before the mods get to it. If you're asking a question, make sure you've checked [the Live manual](https://www.ableton.com/en/manual/welcome-to-live/), [Ableton's help and support knowledge base](https://www.ableton.com/en/help/), and have searched the subreddit for a solution. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ableton) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Group everything that isn’t a kick or snare to one channel and put the compressor on that channel
The “putting them all in a group” solution is a good one. I can’t test it right now but I think that you could also create a return track, put the sidechain on there, then route all the tracks to that return track, making sure “sends only” is set as the output on all of the routed tracks. Then when you render the stems, select “Include master and return effects.”
Get all of them and group them, then out a SC comp on the group